Business Jet Interiors International - September 2021
How It’s Made: Carpet
David Smith 2021-09-17 01:20:09
Magic carpet
In the first of a new series examining how popular business jet interior materials are made, carpet suppliers share their production processes and some of the factors that might influence designers’ decisions
Machines can be relied upon to mass-produce identical mechanical objects like cars. But the executives and VIPs flying in business aircraft or private jets tend not to countenance machine-made carpets. They demand products with more soul and their luxury carpets are hand-tufted by skilled tufters that have spent years perfecting their craft. The manufacturing process is complex and it can take months to create the carpets with the most intricate designs.
“There’s a huge difference between a VIP carpet and the thin, artificial, woven carpets used in airliners,” says Warja Borges, owner of design firm Unique Aircraft. “Enormous machines are able to produce hundreds of metres of carpet out of materials like nylon, but VIP carpets are thick and luxurious. You feel like you’re walking on clouds.”
Lantal was founded as a linen producer in 1886, first created an airline carpet in 1954, and began hand-tufting carpets in 1977 for VIP aircraft, residences and businesses. Until recently, the vast majority of its aviation carpets were mass-produced for airlines. Then about a year ago, a decision was taken to develop the company’s VIP business, because of the booming market for small- and mid-sized business jets. Borges, who has specialised in VIP aircraft interiors for more than 20 years, was asked for support. She started sketching designs, based on repetitive patterns and colour schemes. The next step was to visit Lantal’s manufacturing base in Langenthal, Switzerland, to discuss specific techniques with the tufters and develop shades to be tailor-made at the company’s dyehouse. Decisions also had to be made about the amount of silk to use for highlights. Lantal tends not to use a lot of silk, as it says strands can come loose and clog up ventilation systems.
Natural differences
“It’s vital to have the designer on-site, especially to select colours,” says Simon Grossman, Lantal’s vice president for VIP products. “Assessments have to be done by eye because wool is a natural material. We use the highest quality wool from New Zealand, but light plays a big role and every batch is different. Some wool has more humidity in it and it can affect the colour. You can also choose between the loop pile and the cut pile, which is darker.”
Lantal has 700 employees, but only six possess the skills and steady hands required to create hand-tufted carpets. Over the past few months, Borges has visited the factory several times to work closely with the team. “I’m still learning new techniques from the tufters to create patchworks,” says Borges. “Their skills are incredible. One of Lantal’s super-specialists created a 28.5m [93.5ft] carpet and tufting one line took him three minutes from one side to the other. They have incredible levels of concentration and patience.”
Once a design is chosen and ordered, Lantal sends a sample for approval. If the customer is happy, the hand-tufters begin to manufacture the carpet. The simplest one-coloured carpets – often fitted in helicopters – will be ready for shipping in two weeks. But more complex patterns for a business jet could take three or four months to create.
The hand-tufting process
The tufters mount the ground fabric on a frame and stretch it. They use a hand-tufting gun to shoot dyed yarn into the fabric from behind. Each colour is applied individually. When the tufters make the patterns using the gun, they rely on experience to assess the correct height and direction. “After that, they clean all the lines,” says Grossman. “They make sure a beige yarn is not in an orange area, or vice versa, and that they all line up. Then the back cover is fixed with a special type of latex used in aviation.”
The carpet is taken down from the frame and laid flat on the ground. Then the tufters start the shaving process. “A newly made carpet doesn’t have a smooth surface,” says Borges. “After the shaving, it’s much smoother. Then they can begin carving shapes freehand using small shearing machines. It’s amazing to see what they do. After that, any loose ends of yarn have to be pulled out.”
Although customers will be able to select carpets from Borges’ range, the majority of wealthy customers like to use their own designers. They will choose the decor for residences, yachts and aircraft. This is also the case for Hong Kong’s Tai Ping, which makes luxury hand-tufted carpets for many of the world’s richest 1,000 “Probably 99% of our business comes through interior designers who have worked with us for a long time and specify our products,” explains Xavier Bonnamy of Tai Ping’s Yacht & Aviation European division.
Bonnamy says the market for VIP carpets has grown exponentially over the past 25 years. “Designers used to create the interiors for yachts and aircraft, but forgot all about the carpets,” he says. “They just thought a beige one would do anywhere. Attitudes started to change in the late 1990s and now it’s totally different as designers will take their inspiration for the whole room from the floor designs. If customers have a cool carpet on their yacht they want the same supplier for their homes and aircraft. There’s a snowball effect.”
Inventing the gun
Tai Ping was founded in 1956 in Hong Kong by Their idea was to provide employment to the skilled Chinese refugees flooding over the border. The invention of the pneumatic tufting gun by Tai Ping engineer Anthony Yeh in 1960 took the business to another level and the gun is still the industry standard.
Tai Ping has about 250 skilled hand-tufters at its manufacturing hub in Xiamen, a seaside resort in Fujian province, China. “They need a lot of experience and we train them in the factory,” says Bonnamy. “After several months we give them simpler things to do. But it takes years to move onto the harder design categories. Usually no more than 10 tufters will work on a single carpet.”
Tai Ping’s tufters follow a similar process to the team of six at Lantal, beginning with the creation of a full-size template. At Tai Ping, they map the design onto large acetate sheets using laser plotting. The outline is traced as a line of tiny perforations. Once the template is prepared, it is attached to a large vertically stretched canvas, and the pattern outline is transferred to the canvas by brushing ink onto the acetate, which seeps through the holes. Then an artist finishes the pattern on the canvas by hand.
Light trials
One of the most challenging aspects of the process, Bonnamy says, is dyeing the wool. The recipes are developed using a computer, but the completed yarn batches are visually assessed using four different types of light – daylight, fluorescent, UV and infrared.
After the weavers have completed their work using the hand-tufting guns, the most crucial task takes place on the finishing floor. “That’s where the magic happens with the shearing, carving and sculpting,” says Bonnamy. “Our weavers can create 3D sculptures with scissors and hand shears that look like the garden tools in the shed. There’s no high technology involved. It’s the most stunning place in the factory".
A final inspection verifies the dimensions, design execution, aesthetic and all technical parameters including weight and pile height. Finally, the carpet is shipped to the customer.
A traditional solution to modern concerns
The march of technological progress has barely had any impact on the process of hand-tufting, says Jennifer Kirchgessner, director of design and product development at Scott Group Studio. However, the firm’s engineers have made slight improvements to their proprietary tufting guns over the years, and there have been slight changes to design techniques. “The developments have allowed us to take a highly hand-crafted product and produce it on a large scale with a high level of consistency and accuracy,” she explains.
One thing that is impacting design on a global scale is sustainability, she says. Fortunately, the natural materials used for hand-tufting are well adapted to these concerns. “Wool and silk are rapidly renewable resources and when wool is used as a floor covering it helps control the interior climate,” says Kirchgessner. “It’s sound insulating and contributes to improved air quality by absorbing indoor air contaminants. Wool is also naturally flame resistant, which is why it’s used in aircraft applications, and best of all, it’s both durable and beautiful.”
Kirchgessner believes the pandemic has focused attention on living spaces. “It’s prompted us to evaluate how we can make our environments feel comfortable, functional, effective and beautiful,” she says. “End users are better educated than ever with a plethora of accessible design options at their fingertips. This has always been the challenge for aviation designers. How do you design a custom interior space where a variety of functions need to happen within the same space.”
Shipping times
With a product range that includes carpet in addition to materials such as engineered leather, Tapis has a broad view of customer requirements. “Sustainability continues to be at the forefront of design intent,” says Jason Estes, vice president of marketing at Tapis. “Designers and OEMs want to understand the impact the materials they are specifying have on the world.”
Overall, Tapis’s main focus with carpets in this segment is to optimise shipping times. “Delivery time is always crucial in the aviation business,” says Estes. “By Keeping dyed yarns in stock of various colours, we are able to produce carpets in a much shorter lead time. This helps support our customers in the refurbishment and completion market space, where there is typically a short time within which to plan and work on interiors.”
- See the Page View article for a video outlining the entire process at Tai Ping
- Turn to page 56 to read about Tai Ping's recent collaboration with fashion designer Fang Yang
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How It’s Made: Carpet
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